Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1887-03-24

wind, II may be, that shall come upon them.
THE general qualities Of the resolutions
which men make are Of every grade; even q
frail woman, walking in the boisterous March
wind, may find that all the sail she carries she
cannot make Roadway against 1t, and sup
ports herself by afence that is stiff enough to
| hold her until the wind lulls And as it Is In
! the community so 1t Is In regard to the in
dlviduals-there are SO many persons who
left to themselves, waver; they do so some
| times from good reasons, sometimes from
| those not so good, sometimes the purposes
were formed In q moment of excitement and
| have nothing left of them when the excite
ment cools. There is instability also arising
from disability of organizption; that is to say,
| q man NAV be susceptible while one class OF
effects is being produced, and in that mood
he may form q resolution, but tomorrow
someother blessed, beautiful thing may come
up, and he Is just as susceptible Of that and
secondary state of mind obliterates the first.
A man is under the influence OF music, and
all his purposes run under that power or in
nuence, but, by and by the outbreak of pol
titles brings up patriotism, as 1t Is called, and
his moods change, and those early sensations
at first are no longer operative upon him;
another powerful influence causes di gress
sion. There are many men who have such
anclllary elements brought to bear upon
their wills and upon their temperaments that
and think they will be, but, going home in a
hurry, fall In with company, and the day fol-
lowing business instincts and interests. 1t Is
like another scene that day. So that there is
this changeableness in men. Then the de-
crease Of the power came from the nature Of
the mind. There is, however, this idea not to
be neglected-the distinction between the
mans willing and his wishing. A great many
people think that wish is a resolution. Oh,
1t has gone into proverb, III wishes were
H.. Tx IL
wishes he were rich, but he is too lazy and be
never will be; and man wishes that he knew
more; probably never will; he is lazy; q man
wishes that he could have entrance into GER
tain circles in society, but the steps requisite
he never will have patience or wisdom TO take.
You might just as well carry candle around
the field and think it is agriculture, because
It is light shining on crops. Thousands of
people think they wish to be Christians; they
don't That is the Interpretation given much
of the instruction of Jesus. Men came TO him
and said: Lord, we will follow thee whittier
soever thou goest." No, you won't; YOU
don't know that am destined to suffering,
poverty, persecution, death; you think that l
am going to be royal parsonage and shower
honors and gold 'Ah,' saws one, Il will fol-
low thee, but suffer me first Alb, there is
that If and 'but' in life. Ten thousand peo-
pie say, Il would be Christian it, and that
settles It, i want to be a Christian, but
yes and that settles it again. And so Christ
was surrounded by swarms Of persons, follow
Ing him around, wishing and wishing, with
various degrees Of cxcitablity in them, and he
put them all off; he would have nothing to do
with them. Let him take up his cross and
follow me, whosoever would be my disciples
There is something to do something to prove,
and to wish. There is great distinction be-
tween wishing, then, and willing; for when a
man wills the purpose carries with it the in
strument to effect itself. You wish TO be a
Christian: do you will to be one! Your wish
ing is naturalization If will be accomplishment
Nov, Christian life is the only reasonable
one, whether you regard IL as q duty or as a
means OF the greatest satisfaction; that is TO
say, we were made to be Christians, and being
Christian is simply putting yourself in those
relations to yourself to your fellow-men and
to your God for which you were created. Did
you ever undertake to take apart watchs
That is very easy Did you ever undertake to
put ii together again, That is not SO easy
You don't know which screw goes in which
hole; you don't know exactly which wheel
goes in first; but one thing is perfectly certain,
and that is that nothing else will fit together
but that of which the watch was made, and
each wheel was destined to one place and to
one avocation, and if you can bring them to-
gethcr, according to the intent of the maker.
1t will perform, and otherwise 1t will not. Now,
man was built with great deal more care
than ever a watch was. He has definite rela-
tions to himself. A man was made to live
with men, and there is only one way and one
principle on which men can live together
kindness, love-, Justice means love; justice
is not something else; and We may have a test;
an example, revelation in Jesus, in the Old
Testament as well as the New, but in the New
with clearer emphasis and larger light seeing
there how we have got to live towards our fell
low men, what are the interaclng relations
and what are the predominant spirit in which
we are TO treat them. "Ihou shalt love thy
heighbor as myself" Self-love is made to be
the very model and type Of that affection which
you are TO give to all people. Then we know
perfectly well that we are ailianCed to yet
higher beings than man and to the Invisible
cosmos as well as to the visible; and we can
not live when we are out of joint with any OF
these relations in ourselves and to our neigh
bors and to our God. Now, say it is reason
able that'we should endeavOr to live after this
type upon which we were created. This is
reasonable. A great many men can, but, to
the weak, Christianity is nothing but priest
craft, and it is not reasonable for a man to be
damned because he could not believe, and es-
peca!ly, because he could not gulp and swal-
low all the dogmas and all the forms But
that is wide of the mark. True Christianity
means living in those relations for which we
were INSTRUMENTATION of ourselves,
hannOnizatiOn of our relations to our fellow
men, harmOnizatiOn of our relation to the in
visible future And | say that is
reasonable; | say more than that, that it has
in it the Inherent, the greatest amount Of
sous, man may defer to his passions, taking
the average aud the whole life, he loses rather
than he is the loser now, hut suffers then. A
man may think, because he runs through a
| dissipated period and then reforms, that the
dissipation is all over. No, no no: the causes
sink under and run subterrancOuSy, as 1t
were: and there is many man that has grum-
bed ut forty five years of age from the His
conduct Of twenty years. You know that
| there are the seyenteen-year lOcusts; they lay
| IL.
| the ground for seventeen years; then they
| hatch and come forth. A man may by evil
| leeds lay the eggs that will hatch twenty
! years after that, and as a general truth l
| think it is dem9nstrabe by actual observation
| and experience that the true happiness of
man lies in that sclf-coutro in that virtue, In
| that integrity, in that Horsepower, which is
| tho substance OF religion itself. 1t is not
| learning your catechism, it is not learning
| your verses Of faith, it is not going through
| ecclesiastical achievements Thou shalt love
| The Lord thy God and thy neighbOr as thy
| SELF Therefore YOU must lift Yourself, and
! he that lifts himself shows, not by Partially
| towards the lower and worst features in hi IN
| self, but towards his whole self-the regent
understanding the moral power and element
| md spiritual IN him. Now, when a man has
his presented to him. and he is urged to enter
| lpOu II Christian life as the only honorable
| me, the only one that has the greatest salts
faction in it, the only one that carries in it
| Tue luca Oh duty ana gratitude towards GOu,
| .OW thuughtlCssly men heed that. Tonight
how many are there of YOU that say in thus
cooking over the sphere of life--life TO come:
4 am resolved what to do" Bearing in mind
| what resolution means and what it includes,
| IOw many men can say tonight, Yes | am
csu!rel what to do" There are very few Of
tou that would say. Il am resolved not to be
/ Christian" That's a very hazardous thing,
IhiCh very few men care to resolve. Men
may say. on the other hand, II hope some
inc TO be Christian; | feel as il | would
Ike to be ONE | wish was one; just as a
azy man wishes be had the produces Of in
iuslry, But how many men are there here
| to night that can can say, Il am resolved
what to do Il am resolved what TO do"
Are you then resolved at once to become a
ClTistian Can | he a Christian at once! In
me sense, no; in another sense, YES. Nobody
ever learned q trade at blow, but he can be-
;in this day; no man ever became a scholar by
i resolution, but he never can become one
without a resolution; it is a complex one and